Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technology of a light sheet microscope and a sheet illumination method.
Description of the Related Art
In a field of fluorescence microscopes, technology is known in which laser light is irradiated onto a sample from a direction perpendicular to an optical axis of a detection optical system and a light sheet perpendicular to the optical axis of the detection optical system is formed in the sample. This technology has the merits of enabling a damage inflicted on samples to be suppressed, a high longitudinal resolution to be realized, and the like, and it has gathered attention recently.
In the above-described technology, the sample is illuminated from a direction different from the optical axis direction of the detection optical system. Therefore, when a portion to which light is hard to transmit owing to absorption or a portion in which light is diffused is contained in the sample, light is not incident behind the relevant portion and a band of shadow is formed in a field of view.
Related technology is described in, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-250303. In Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-250303, the technology is described in which a radiation component of a sheet light is irradiated onto specimen substances at different angles according to the time due to vibrational motions of a wobble plate or a swing mirror.